By admin 
YUMA, AZ (AZFamily) Residents in Yuma County continue to report a surge in flies across parts of the area, raising concerns about what may be causing the problem.
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The issue was first reported in April, when some Yuma County officials said the flies could be connected to AG Tech, a local company that applies biosolids to farmland. Biosolids are solid organic material produced during the treatment of domestic sewage at wastewater treatment facilities.
On Monday morning, AG Tech gave a behind-the-scenes tour of its Somerton operation to show how the biosolids are handled.
“These loads coming from the city of Yuma, have been coming to this farm for 40 years,” a company representative said during the tour.
Concerns from some residents have centered on possible health risks, including links to so-called “forever chemicals” — and whether biosolids could be contributing to the fly issue across parts of Yuma County.
During a recent Yuma County Board of Supervisors meeting, county vector control workers said they tested six locations at AG Tech, including two application areas, and found no fly larvae.
AG Tech officials pushed back on claims that the material is dangerous.
“The product that we are bringing is not hazardous, it’s not going to make people sick, it’s not going to give you cancer, it’s not going to harm the public in any way, shape, or form,” a manager with the company said.
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Kevin Good, a manager with the company that owns AG Tech, said much of what ends up at the wastewater treatment plant is paper and food waste, which then becomes biosolids through a digestion process.
“Microbes digest those materials, and basically those microbes is what comes out to the farm and those are called biosolids,” Good said.
Good added that the operation does not use chemicals or fertilizer, saying it uses organic biosolids.
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